Q: Reading about your company, we noticed that you
have made many acquisitions. What were the motives for these - to acquire
employees, or technology, or presence in other countries?
A: The GRAITEC acquisition strategy is driven by two main goals:
technology acquisition to reinforce our global structural BIM [building
information modeling] offerings, and geographical extension.

Q: Despite acquiring many companies and their
software, it appears to us that you promote only the three software packages
listed above. What happened to the other software?
A: The acquired software packages still exist and serve their customer
base. In addition, GRAITEC R&D [research and development] integrates them
into our Advance suite so that our users can migrate to the most
international and standard GRAITEC solutions. Our target is to deliver not
only equivalent functionality, but also expand functions to the benefit of
all our users.

Q: What does the standalone software run on, AutoCAD OEM?
A: Historically, it was based on the AutoCAD platform, and Advance Steel
2012 can still run on AutoCAD, but GRAITEC has also developed a true
standalone version with a DWG-based CAD engine that uses technology from the
Open Design Alliance (ODA).

Q: What kinds of firms tend to be your biggest customers?
A: Our largest companies are the top construction companies worldwide, such
as Bouygues of France.

Q: Who do you consider to be your competition?
A: GRAITEC has competitors in every area of our software - steel and
concrete structural detailing and structural analysis. However, GRAITEC is a
global solution provider covering the entire structural construction
process, from modeling, analysis, and validation, to production. From this
perspective, GRAITEC is unique in its capacity to cover the complete process
and all stages of structural jobs, contributing with high specific expertise
to the global BIM process.

In this sense, GRAITEC believes that the BIM process brings high added
value to the construction process. From the GRAITEC perspective, the best of
BIM is achieved by merging the best expert vertical solutions into a single
model. GRAITEC is the best-in-class structural player to contribute to any
BIM initiative.

Q: We are interested in knowing about your market share in France. In
Europe?
A: This is a very interesting question, but not easy to answer. Of course
GRAITEC has a very significant market share in France, the country in which
we have been operating for the last 25 years. For the rest of Europe, the
situation can be different from one country to another, but generally
speaking, GRAITEC is quickly acquiring market share and developing sales in
Europe.

The positioning of the GRAITEC solutions is key in our marketshare
acquisition. The market is very much attracted to the BIM initiative, but
construction professionals are worried about keeping a high level of
expertise in the software they use. Vertical specialists, such as GRAITEC,
are meeting with construction specialist challenges. At the same time, the
ease of use and ease of learning of GRAITEC solutions are key for the
implementation phase, and so our customers appreciate that GRAITEC Advance
is a powerful BIM solution with an affordable acquisition and maintenance
pricing.

Q: As your customers must comply with local regulations, how does
GRAITEC support them locally? We are especially interested in the situation
for the USA.
A: Localization of the GRAITEC solution to the local norms is clearly a
permanent challenge. To meet with this challenge we rely on our local
experts. They give GRAITEC fundamental knowledge and expertise in the local
construction codes, and so are in charge of providing specifications to
GRAITEC developers, and to verify that our development meets with the
highest expectations.

For key regions such as North America, GRAITEC bases its expertise on
local development teams. For example, GRAITEC has an experienced development
team based in Canada for North America.

Q: What is your strategy to compete in the US market against
established software? Do you plan to compete through features, price, and/or
support?
A: : For North America ,we plan to compete by positioning that which
differentiates GRAITEC from the competition, and by our local support. Our
positioning is that GRAITEC is unique worldwide as an independent software
package for the construction field. It is unique in offering a suite of
international engineering-to-detailing CAD solutions for steel and concrete,
combined with structural analysis software. On top of that, GRAITEC
solutions are incomparable in their ease of use and ease of learning. They
are powerful, and very affordable in price. This makes all the difference
from a competitive perspective. For example, Advance Steel grew 100% in 2011
over 2010.

Q: The US office was established in 2003 in Boston. How many people
work there? Is it meant primarily for US sales?
A: Our North American team is based in two different offices, Boston and
Montreal. In total, the GRAITEC North American team has now over 25
employees. Most of our employees are engineers and have a strong background
in the construction field.

Q: Has the slowdown in US economy, especially in building and
construction, affected GRAITEC?
A: To be honest, we have been affected in the sense that our start in North
America was not as fast as expected. However, GRAITEC is a new player in the
field, and every company in this industry would be more than happy to show
the same growth rate as has GRAITEC in North America.

But the business is not easy, and unfortunately we have lost some of our
resellers during the financial crisis; a direct sales approach was necessary
in some cases. But we feel the situation is improving, and so we are
actively recruiting value-added resellers. Through this, we expect to
increase our North American coverage.

Q: Emerging markets are showing much higher growth rates than North
America or Europe. Construction in Asia, for example, seems to be booming.
Does GRAITEC have a plan for expansion in these areas? If so, what are some
of the countries on which you are currently focusing?
A: You are right. Not just Asia, but also South America is a key markets for
the future. Of course GRAITEC is already investing in these markets. GRAITEC
based its Asia Pacific operations in Singapore, and we operate through a
channel of over 20 resellers in Asia. We are planning to open a new office
in the coming months in India, and eventually in Australia. Brazil is also a
target, and no doubt some investment will come also in this region.

Additional Information

About the Author

Ralph Grabowski, TenLinks senior editor,
is one of the leading CAD journalists and authors, with over a 100 books and
many hundreds of articles. His upFront.eZine may be the industry’s longest
running newsletter. Ralph holds a civil engineering degree.
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